This web site is to advocate for a ban on housing deficits, cities with housing deficits should not be allowed to have height limits on residential apartment buildings.
Key Ideas: If you want stability and progress, you need negative feedback. Positive feedback leads to instability. Recognize that the society has a finite amount of resources. To achieve success, acknowledge the laws of physics/fysik and what cognitive science is finding about the human brain. Insurance and government help are for unplanned events. Planned events should be paid for by the planner.

The amount of Fossil Fuel Consumed by workers and students who commute into a city or university due to lack of housing should be the main factor in determining how sustainable that city/university is:Yet, this is frequently omitted from measures of sustainability, just having few solar panels is a drop in the bucket when 1 looks at the total fossil fuel consumption. Electric Cars are NOT fossil fuel free. To be honest, you should take into consideration the amount of fossil fuel consumed at the power plant, that is required to generate the electricity used by an electric vehicle. The amount of fossil fuel consumed in building and maintaining the roads and freeways should also be included. The amount fossil fuel consumed in treating victims of automobile accidents should also be included.
Electric cars might pollute much more than petrol or diesel-powered cars
Electric car factories also emitted more toxic waste than conventional car factories(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19830232)
PM = particulate matter, electric vehicle particulate matter emissions are comparable to those of conventional vehicles, non-exhaust sources account for 90% of PM10 and 85% of PM2.5 from traffic(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S135223101630187X)

The point I want to make is 1 floor of commercial space creates demand for
10-25 floors of residential space, this is often underestimated and the housing
never gets build. This results in a chronic shortage of housing.
In modern offices, you can have 1 person every 2-4 m^2, but a family of 4 needs > 100 m^2 to live comfortably. This means 1 floor of commercial space creates demand for 25-50 floors of residential space of the same surface area.
To understand why housing can become very expensive, consider the situation where 5 housing units are available and 500 workers need them. The algorithm that the landlord executes is keep increasing the price until only 5 people can afford the 5 units.
To bring down the cost of housing, you should get to a situation, where if 500 housing units are needed by workers > 600 units are available and now competition among landlords start to the benefit of the renters.
Another reason residential buildings should be allowed to exceed 17 stories is
in steel framed buildings, when the height exceeds 17 stories, the incremental
cost of adding an extra floor starts going down. Thus building 1 17 stories
building is cheaper than building 2 8 stories building and it uses less carbon
too. Also, the higher a building, the less infrastructures resources/floor,
such as sidewalk and street lighting is used.
Housing should be added on top of steel framed buildings, so they exceed 17
stories, because then, the incremental cost of adding 1 floor of apartments
starts going down.
We need a state law that forces every city to be balanced and that forces every city to house its workers and students (number of housing units > (4 * number of jobs) + number of university students), the law should not allow any
University or college to expand without supplying the additional housing
required by the expansion. Cities with housing deficits should not be allowed to have new commercial development, which would make the city more unbalanced by creating more demand for housing, height limits on residential apartment buildings and parking requirements. Additionally, it is important for people who do not have and do not wish to acquire cars to have the option of
not paying for and not subsidizing parking. The accounting of housing and
parking should be separate, housing should never subsidize parking.
The cost of hearings and other non construction items should be kept lower than 1% of the cost of materiasl and construction. If groups such as neighborhood associations require more hearing, they should pay for the additional hearings
Every city and university should think of itself as a cruise ship or a small island and be required to house all its workers and students.
Another possibility is to get US census figures on the number of people living
in the US and the number of jobs. The ratio should give an approximate estimate
of minimum acceptable number of housing units/job. There should also be a slight
surplus of housing in every city to house people displaced due to catastrophes.

Forcing a developer to set aside 20 units of affordable housing when > 20000 people need them is a drop in the bucket.
What proportion of affordable housing needs is this policy solving?
All the eco/green programs won't work if you don't tackle overpopulation, housing deficits and suburban sprawl and honestly take into consideration the full cost of transportation.
Simple example on how to make housing expensive: build office space to employ 25000 people and build housing for only 100!! here you created demand for 100000 housing units ( 25000 and their families), but you built 100 units, thus you created a shortage of 99900 housing units. Another way, housing costs are increased is by increasing the cost of production. Frequently, city bureaucracies force housing developers to conduct study after study after study that end up adding millions of dollars to the cost of construction, then imbecilic city regulations force housing developers to build large amounts of parking space, that also greatly adds to the cost of construction (1 parking space costs around $30000 to build) and then these same politicians want to encourage people to go car free!!
The U.S. antitrust laws are supposed to prohibit this scenario. The main act that was passed in Congress is called the Sherman act. According to the book " Antitrust Law " by Philip Areeda and Herbert Hovenkamp(http://www.amazon.com/Antitrust-Law-Phillip-E-Areeda/dp/073552694X) call number kf1649 a741 copy 1 page 4, the general goal of the Sherman Act is to promote "competition" and "maximize consumer welfare by encouraging firms to behave competitively".
It seems to me that zoning laws that enact a maximum height limit and put other restrictions on housing do the exact opposite of the Sherman Act: They minimize consumer (consumers of the housing commodity) welfare by encouraging firms (providers of the housing commodity) to behave NON competitively.
From the state of California booklet on antitrust:
On page 3, under " Other agreements among competitors ", I notice that output limitations are almost always illegal. Cities, in the name of Landlords and Property Owners, enact zoning laws that limit the amount of housing using height limits, allowing only single family homes etc. The consequence of these zoning laws is it is impossible to build enough housing to house all the workers and students who work or go to school in that city. No matter how you cut it, a City does not have the RIGHT TO SIMULTANEOUSLY ALLOW THE BUILDING OF OFFICES AND UNIVERSITIES AND PROHIBIT THE BUILDING OF THE NECESSARY HOUSING to meet the demand generated by those buildings. To protect consumers, construction of offices and universities should be accompanied by the construction of more than enough housing to meet the additional demand for housing generated by the additional construction of offices and universities. I believe this matter is the MOTHER OF ALL ANTITRUST cases. The antitrust laws should be clarified and amended to ban housing deficits and force every city to be balanced and be capable of housing all its workers and students.

Proposal to include the full energy cost of transportation on measures of sustainability for buildings and cities:
Intellectual honesty requires that the full energy cost of transportation be included in the measures of sustainability for buildings and cities.
Let Si and Sj be 2 structures. A structure can be a building, a city or some other surface area.
Let Tij be a transportation trip between Si and Sj,
Energy is used in at least the following activities:
construction and maintenance of the vehicle used in the trip
construction and maintenance of the infrastructure/road used in the trip
completing the trip
treating and compensating victims of accidents caused by the trip

To account for the contribution of Tij to the energy cost of an object, we take the total energy cost for the lifespan of the object and amortize it for what is used in Tij
Example if a vehicle lasts for 1 million Km, Tij's contribution would be = (cost of construction and maintenance of the vehicle over its entire lifespan of 1 million Km) x (distance of Tij)/1 million Km

Energy cost of Tij = Energy consumed to complete Tij + Average Energy consumed in building and maintaining the road used by Tij + Average Energy consumed in treating victims of automobile accidents + Contribution of Tij to the building and maintenance of the vehicles used in Tij
Total transportation cost for Si = 1/2 x (cost of all transportation trips starting or ending in Si)
This will account for the cost of all transportation trips. For a Tii starting and ending in Si, the full cost will be assigned to Si
Example Samsung's new Silicon Valley headquarters 102,000 sq m and features a 10-story office tower is claimed to be sustainable(http://www.gizmag.com/samsung-silicon-valley-headquarters-nbbj/28251/)
It will employ 2000 people, if due to lack of housing within walking distance for the 2000 employees and their families, the average employee drives solo > 100 Km/day for 300 days/year
Under these conditions, we get > 2000 x 100 x 300 = 60 million Km of vehicle traffic/year

UC Berkeley Professors Face High Home Prices, Limited Housing
Back in 1960, a first-year UC Berkeley assistant professor could afford to buy
a home in Berkeley with a median salary of $7,008 and median home price at
$16,600, making the price-to-income ratio 2.4, according to the City of
Berkeley Housing Element of the General Plan from 2001
Today, two first-year assistant professors cannot afford a home together in
Berkeley on salaries alone. For an entry UC Berkeley assistant professor making
$80,000 annually, the median cost of a Berkeley home, $769,500 , is more than 9
times his or her salary.
(http://archive.dailycal.org/article/103506/uc_berkeley_professors_face_high_home_prices_limit)

San Francisco Bay Area households spend up to 2/3 of their income on transportation
and housing costs, a severe burden that leaves workers with insufficient resources
for other basic needs.
The high combined costs of housing and transportation $41,420 per year represents 59% of the median household income
(http://www.bayareaburden.org/ and
http://bayareaburden.org/the-report/)

Cutting out short auto trips and replacing them with mass transit and active transport would yield major health benefits, The biggest health benefit was due to replacing half of the short trips with bicycle trips during the warmest 6 months of the year, saving about $3.8 billion per year from avoided mortality and reduced health care costs for conditions like obesity and heart disease (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/uow-iuo103111.php)

Frequency and distance at which drivers with moderate levels of blurred vision and cataracts recognize pedestrians at night was severely reduced, even when the drivers have passed the required vision test. This means drivers with moderate levels of blurred vision and cataracts should not drive. 1 more reason to ban housing deficits and switch to a pedestrian oriented society.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-04/afri-cas041012.php)

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates there are 15 pedal-misapplication crashes a month in the United States, and the drivers in almost 2/3 of such crashes are women
Drivers aged 16 to 20 and those 76 or older were most likely to be involved in pedal-misapplication crashes
The single factor that may explain over-involvement in pedal-misapplication crashes at both ends of the driver-age distribution is poor executive function
The relevant areas of the brain do not fully develop until young adulthood, and have been shown to decline with advanced age
Gas pedal accidents gained notoriety in 2003 when an 86-year-old male driver mistakenly stepped on the gas pedal of his car instead of the brake and then panicked, plowing into an open-air market in Santa Monica, California. 10 people were killed and 63 injured(http://hosted2.ap.org/COGRA/APUSnews/Article_2012-04-13-Auto%20Accidents-Gas%20Pedal/id-2ec633bf4fc1426a8ec87fd9a3cec56e)

Is it Safe to Drive with My Arm in a Cast? Splints, casts, slings and other devices used for post-surgical immobilization, and the treatment of fractures and dislocations in the upper extremities, may seriously diminish a driver's ability to control the wheel. A lower extremity injury, cast or splint may limit a driver's ability to use a car brake or gas pedal(http://newsroom.aaos.org/media-resources/news/is-it-safe-to-drive-with-my-arm-in-a-cast.htm)

Car crashes cost U.S. $300 Billion a year:
According to AAA each traffic fatality costs an average of $6 million dollars
According to AAA: Fatal motor vehicle crash costs $6 million and the average cost of an injury-only crash is $126,000
(http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-11-02/fatal-vehicle-crashes-cost-millions/51051030/1 and http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500202_162-57317446/car-crashes-cost-u.s-$300b-a-year-aaa/)
The embarrassing question that should be asked is who pays for the victims of underinsured drivers.
It should NOT be the victims of underinsured drivers.
Victims of underinsured private transport vehicle drivers should be compensated the same as if the injury was caused by a public transport vehicle.
Anything less would be a subsidy to private transport vehicles and a mentality of blaming the victims of underinsured drivers.
In 2011, Liability insurance for private transport vehicles should be $6 million dollars indexed to inflation, which is an accurate reflection of the cost of driving.
States should have to adequately compensate victims of underinsured drivers before being able to use federal highway transportation funds for building and maintaining the transportation infrastructure.
Private transport vehicles should have to pay an additional charge/Km, that is also a function of the risk profile of the driver, that would go into a fund, which would be used to compensate the Victims of underinsured drivers.
Victims of underinsured drivers should get compensated the same as if the injury was caused by a public transport vehicle, the fund could then try to collect from underinsured drivers.
If everybody is adequately insured, the extra tax/Km would go down to 0.
The state and DMV, that allow underinsured drivers should have to make up the difference that automobile insurance and the extra tax/Km cannot pay.
This will give states and DMVs the incentives to keep risky drivers off the road and automobile insurance adequate to be able to pay for the damage caused by private transport vehicles.
There should be NO subsidy to the the transportation infrastructure, building and maintaining the transportation infrastructure should be paid for entirely by users of the transportation infrastructure, just as users of the electric infrastructure fully pay for the electric infrastructure.

For example, who is supposed to pay for the treatment and care of Victims of underinsured drivers, that fall into the following categories:
SCI = chronic spinal cord injury
Spinal Cord. 2000 Jun;38(6):331-9.
Megacolon in patients with chronic spinal cord injury
CONCLUSION:Megacolon is a highly prevalent disorder in individuals with chronic spinal cord injury. Our findings suggest that the presence of megacolon may be predicted in older individuals, and in those who are more than 10 years post-SCI. We also found that clinical constipation was frequently present in individuals with megacolon, despite their significantly greater use of laxative(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10889561)

Late-life spinal cord injury and aging with a long term injury
J Spinal Cord Med. 1995 Jul;18(3):183-93.
Spinal cord injuries were usually the result of automobile accidents in individuals injured younger than 50 years of age and falls in individuals injured when older than 50 years of age. Patients surviving late life injury are much more likely to have incomplete injuries predominantly affecting the cervical spine. A number of conditions were found to be more prevalent in older patients. These included carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, myocardial infarction, diabetes, kidney stones, pressure ulcers and hypertension(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7552423)

Stairs should be open to the public:
In 2011, there is an epidemic of Movement Deficit Underactivity Disorder and type 2 diabetes.
Yet, the Stairs of lot of highrise buildings are closed to the public forcing them to use the elevator even when going a couple of floors.
There should be a very simple law: if you can go between 2 floors using the
elevator, you should have the option of using the stairs. There should be a
heavy fine (> $10000/day indexed to inflation) for buildings that close their
stairs.
Stairs should have handles on both sides allowing people to use both arms while climbing stairs. This will also prevent falling. If wider stairs are needed, multiple lanes can be built with handles as separators.
Having 1 spiral ramp instead of 2nd set of stairs is helpful, it will help folks in wheelchairs to be evacuated in case of power failure. It also helps moving things on wheels between floors without using the elevators.
Elevators should generate energy when going down.

Hanging your laundry should never be prohibited:
This is a cheap low tech way of using solar and wind energy.

Better Approach to affordable housing:

Outlaw housing deficits at the state, federal or world level and force every city to be balanced as described above.

Give rent stamps to help low income people.

In the meantime, if a developer provides > 15% affordable housing, there should be no height limit and no parking requirements.

Darwinian algorithm to improve the efficiency of bureaucracies and organizations
If you want stability and progress, you need negative feedback. This algorithm provides negative feedback by allowing memes/memones to compete against each other.
Assume M man hours are allocated to a set of job duties. As an example, assume M = 4x40 man hours = 160 man hours
1-setup a competition among several groups doing similar job duties and announce a monetary reward to the group that can do it in the least amount of time for a specified interval of time, t0, such as 1 year.
2-At the end of the specified interval of time, t0, the group that wins would have done its job duties in M0 < M, gets the monetary reward and teaches the other what methods/tricks it used to improve the efficiency. As an example, assume M0 = 4x35 man hours = 140 man hours
3-for the next specified interval of time, t1, M0 becomes the man hours allocated to the original set of job duties
4-Organization splits profits 50-50 with workers: work week is reduced to 35-36 hours/week (allowing for a fudge factor) ang get paid (36+40)/2 = 38 hours/week
Organization should not lay off people, but rather reduce the work of all workers and split profits 50-50 with workers
Iteration is repeated.
Improvements in efficiency and productivity should be shared by all to create a win win situation.
This also means an end to a guaranteed full-time job.
A friend of mine has calculated that in the last 80 years,
productivity has improved by 2% / year. This means to accomplish the same
things we did in 40 Hours/week 80 years ago, we need to work
40 * (0.98)**80 = 7.94 Hrs/week today.

Assume we want 2.5 x the things we had 80 years ago, It means we have to work 19.86 <
20 Hrs/week today. My point is there has to be a reduction in the work week for
everybody to work.

1 question that people who object should answer: If you are in charge of setting the work week, what algorithm do you use to determine it.
If you look at human society as an organism, as the organism becomes more efficient, it has to work less. We cannot afford to ignore this simple fact.
Please support a policy that promotes full enjoyment rather than full employment.
Sleep disorders common among police officers, maybe it is time to employ police officers < 30 hrs/wk this way municipalities never have to pay overtime (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/jaaj-sdc121511.php)
Men who are unemployed > 2 years show signs of faster aging in their DNA(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/icl-lum111813.php)

Reducing consumption and salaries as well as working hours, while maintaining workplaces, can have a positive effective on people's wellbeing, unemployment, unstable jobs and economic vulnerability caused by the crisis have a very important negative effect on the quality of life. The results of the study demonstrate that climate change mitigation policies need not reduce the level of happiness of individuals in the long term. Their effect can even be positive if they are accompanied by measures to reduce working hours and consumption standards, while maintaining work stability.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-03/uadb-edc031214.php)

You don't need to be Albert Einstein to conclude the impossibility of continued growth in human population

From (http://www.marxists.org/archive/mehring/1893/histmat/02.htm)
In Danzig in 1529 Anton Müller discovered the so-called ribbon-loom (also called a small-wares loom), which produced from 4 to 6 pieces of cloth at the same time, but, since the City Council was afraid that this discovery could make paupers of a large number of the workers, they suppressed it, and had the inventor secretly drowned or strangled. In Leyden the same machine was used in 1629, but the lacemakers' riots forced the authorities to ban it. In Germany, it was banned by Imperial Edicts in 1685 and in 1719. In Hamburg it was burned in public on the instructions of the magistrates.
In the case of Anton Müller, it would have been better to enjoy the benefits of his invention, cut the work hours in half and pay workers 75% of their original salary.

If a public or private entity needs to reduce the number of man-hours, it would be better to reduce the work and pay of 80% of workers before starting to lay off.
It is better to have 5 people work 24 hrs/week rather than have 3 work 40 hrs/week and 2 work 0 hrs/week.
Now, there is talk about reducing the size of public workforce. It would be better to reduce work to say 28 hrs/week and pay workers as if they were working 32 hrs/week

Introduce some negative feedback into the unemployment insurance tax
Organizations, that pre-agree to reduce the work and pay of 80% of workers to 20-30 hrs/week before starting to lay off, should be rewarded with a lower unemployment insurance tax.
This approach also leads to skills preservation.
Public sector organizations should take the lead implementing this policy.
It would be better to reduce work of police and firefighters personnel to say 28 hrs/week and pay workers as if they were working 32 hrs/week than laying off 10-15% of the workforce.

Introduce some negative feedback into the work week
Make the work week a decreasing function of the unemployment. The higher the unemployment, the lower the work week.

public work for improving sustainability
1 public work I would suggest is making sure all our public and state
universities have enough housing to house all their students, workers, postdocs and
faculty within walking distance in clean high rise apartment buildings. This
will permanently reduce fossil fuel consumption.
it also makes sense to make sure all federal and state capitals have enough
housing to house all state legislators and their staff within walking distance
in clean high rise apartment buildings. This will eliminate the need for
expensive housing and daily living expenses and will permanently reduce fossil
fuel consumption and the cost of housing for university students, whether the society or the student's household pays for the housing.
Housing should be built using the most efficient methods such as:
In 2012, the Chinese sustainable building company, Broad Group, has yet attempted another impossible feat, building a 30 story tall hotel prototype in 360 hours, after building a 15-story building in a week earlier in 2011 (http://www.my-architecture.com/news/30story-building-built-in-15-days),
1st Fully 3D Printed Building May Take Shape in 2013
Protohouse 2.0 will be 4 meters by 8 meters and incorporate furniture, stairs, even curtains into the print design.(http://singularityhub.com/2013/04/04/first-fully-3d-printed-building-may-take-shape-this-year/)and
Drexel Engineers Develop Cement With 97% Smaller Carbon Dioxide and Energy Footprint (http://www.drexel.edu/now/news-media/releases/archive/2012/February/Engineers-Develop-Cement-With-97-Percent-Smaller-Carbon-Dioxide-and-Energy-Footprint/)

Achtung resistive heating
Resistive heating or generating heat by forcing an electric current thru a resistive element converts electrical energy into thermal energy. It is a waste of energy, because 100% of electrical energy can be converted into thermal energy, only 30% - 40% of thermal energy generated by burning fossil fuel can be converted into electrical energy.
The efficiency of thermal to mechanical conversion is limited by Carnot's theorem (T1-T0)/T0 All temperatures are in deg Kelvin(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnot_cycle)
Resistive Heating is stupid and bad for the environment. Heating with electricity uses about 3 times more
energy than heating by directly burning fossil fuel. To generate electricity,
fossil fuel is burned at the power plant and only 1/3 of the thermal energy can
be converted into electrical energy. Thus, consumers end up using about 3 times
more fossil fuel when heating with electricity rather than using fossil fuel
directly. A case can be made for banning all electric kitchens and electric
heaters or putting a sales tax of > 100% on appliances that use resistive heating.
using energy more efficiently can be just as beneficial as finding new ways to produce energy more efficiently(http://www.nrel.gov/news/features/feature_detail.cfm/feature_id=2111)
The global capacity for energy generation from wind power has been overestimated, and that geophysical / climate effects of turbines will reduce the benefits of large-scale power installations, the generating capacity of very large wind power installations (larger than 100 square kilometers) may peak at between 0.5 and 1 watts per square meter. Previous estimates, which ignored the turbines' slowing effect on the wind, had put that figure at between 2 and 7 watts per square meter(http://www.seas.harvard.edu/news-events/press-releases/rethinking-wind-power)
fossil fuel required to build grid-scale storage batteries could negate some of the environmental benefits of new solar and wind farms(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/su-ssc030813.php)

Unpleasant facts about frost free, frostless, Automatic Defrost or no-frost refrigerators: they use resistive heating
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-defrost)
Also, what happens to the frost in a so called frost free refrigerator, if there is an electric failure for several days such as what happened on the east coast in 2012. The frost is going to melt and fall on the floor and create a mess. At least with a manual defrost energy efficient refrigerator, the tray will catch the melted frost and you can throw it away.
Also, the energy star ratings, which are approved by government agencies, are deceptive: they only compare a so called frost free refrigerator with a resistive heating element inside it to other so called frost free refrigerators with a resistive heating element inside them. They don't dare comparing a so called frost free refrigerator with a resistive heating element inside it to a properly maintained manual defrost energy efficient refrigerator with same volume and cooling capacity.
The manual defrost energy efficient refrigerator will always use less energy and should be included in the energy star ratings.
Consumers should know upfront that so called frost free refrigerator has a resistive heating element inside it to melt the frost and an explanation where the melted frost goes, what is the energy consumption if you live in a humid climate and store > 5Kg of produce, that emits > 200g of H2O vapor/day, will this cause an overflow in the pan that collects melted frost? Also, what happens to the frost if there is an electric failure for several days such as what happened on the east coast in 2012. Is the frost is going to melt and fall on the floor and create a mess. .
Improvement to the frost free refrigerators: have a drain in the floor of the kitchen or where the refrigerator will be, then the melted frost can go in an elastic tube into the drain. This way, you don't have to boil it to get rid of it and it never has a chance to accumulate into a small lake and promote an environment suitable for mold.
Self-defrosting refrigerator/freezers can generate mold: every 6 to 8 hours, it heats up its cooling coils slightly and melts any frost accumulation on the coils. The resulting water drains into a shallow pan at the bottom of the refrigerator/freezer. When mold grows in the drain pan, it is sometimes considered to be a health concern. If your drain pan is removable, and if you're sensitive to mold, consider cleaning the drain pan periodically. This is something manufacturers of Self-defrosting refrigerator/freezers will not tell you.(http://www.repairclinic.com/Refrigerator-Maintenance-Tips)
Manual defrost refrigerators are generally more energy efficient than automatic defrost refrigerators but proper maintenance of manual defrost refrigerators is necessary to realize the energy savings(http://energystar.supportportal.com/link/portal/23002/23018/Article/13960/Are-manual-defrost-refrigerators-more-energy-efficient)
A manual defrost refrigerator uses half the energy of an automatic defrost model but must be defrosted regularly to stay energy efficient(http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/home/appliances/refrigerators.html)
Automatic defrost refrigerators work by heating the interior refrigerator coils at regular intervals. This prevents frost from building up and allows for effective cooling of the refrigerator or freezer. However, because it introduces a heating element to the cooled space, the refrigerator uses more energy than it otherwise would(http://energystar.supportportal.com/link/portal/23002/23018/Article/16885/What-is-the-difference-between-automatic-and-manual-defrost-If-I-have-a-refrigerator-that-I-need-to-manually-defrost-how-do-I-do-it-and-how-often-is-it-needed)

Give full Body Sovereignty and the right for responsible hedonism for each adult mature person over the age of 27, ban lungs molestation and give victims of lungs molestation the right to sue the molester for > $10e6/incident indexed to inflation

2nd hand smoke is lungs molestation, it should be banned and the victims should have the right to sue the molester for > $10e6/incident indexed to inflation
I urge you to use the term lungs molestation when describing 2nd hand smoke.
I support the right of all adult mature people over the age 27 in the society to put any chemical in their bodies.
I don't recognize the right of anybody to put chemicals into my body or in the air I am about to breathe, such as by smoking or holding a burning tobacco or marijuana/cannabis cigarette.
The key question is if I am walking in the public domain who decides what chemicals touch my lungs and sinuses?
Should I or the person p0 smoking or holding a burning cigarette make the decision ?
I think I and NOT p0 should make the decision.
I have never consented to allow the chemicals from burning cigarettes touch my lungs and sinuses.
I support banning smoking. I and others have NEVER consented to have our lungs and sinuses raped and molested by cigarettes and marijuana/cannabis smokers. I and other victims of lungs and sinuses rape and molestion should be able to sue offender for $10e6 indexed to inflation / incident.
Consumption of tobacco and marijuana/cannabis products should be limited to the non-smoking route.
Smokers are nothing but a bunch of spoiled fascist lung molesters. They have the attitude:
I want to smoke and whether you like it or not, you have the duty to breathe the smoke coming out of my cigarette.
They also have this sense of entitlement that they can throw their cigarette butts often without extinguishing them on the sidewalk.
These faschist animals and lungs molesters don't understand the language of please. The only language they understand is the threat of law suits.
Also, cigarette smoke can trigger into past smokers the urge to restart smoking. Smokers should never have that kind of power.
Currently laws assume the brain matures at 21, but cognitive scientists have determined that the brain does not mature until the age of 27.
1 of the cheapest tobacco prevention methods would be to delay the age at which a person can buy cigarettes to 25 maybe.
The appropriate age should be determined after consulting with cognitive scientists, who have been doing the functional MRIs and studying the structure of the brain.
I propose the following:

Support full Body Sovereignty and the right for responsible hedonism for each adult mature person over the age of 27
This is necessary to have democracy (rule of majority), without tyranny of the majority or a bureaucracy appointed by the majority and accountable to nobody
Let p0 be any adult mature person over the age of 27.
Every adult mature person in the society p0 should have full Sovereignty over p0.
only p0 should have full Sovereignty over p0,
p0 should have full Sovereignty only over p0.
If p1 violates p0's full Sovereignty over p0, po has the right to sue p1 for large monetary damages (> 10e6 indexed to inflation)
(cognitive science has determined 27 the age at which most people's brains mature)
Implications:
Let p0 and p1 be any 2 distinct mature adult persons in the society
If p0 and p1 want to marry/have sex, that is the business of p0 and p1 only and the business of nobody else,
p0 should have the right to put any chemical/drug in p0's body witout FDA approval.
p0 should have no right to put any chemical/drug in p1's body without p1's consent, where p1 is any other member of the society.
p0 has no right to hold a burning cigarette on the sidewalk as there are other
pedestrians who have never consented to allow the chemicals touch their lungs
and sinuses.
The DEA and the FDA have degenerated into faschist organizations.
The DEA should be eliminated and Adults over 27 should have absolute sovereignty over their bodies. That means the right to have an abortion, euthanasia, buy any chemical for their own use without a prescription. This is validated by the following: Retirees should be masters of their own destiny, and actively manage and plan their free time to ensure a happy and fulfilling retirement(http://www.springer.com/about+springer/media/springer+select?SGWID=0-11001-6-1433643-0)
The drug approval part of the FDA should be done by an international committee, that should be considered only as a recommendation.
This gives countries the opportunities to pool their resources and save money. After all the scientific data is the same. Why duplicate work?

Government role should be to make sure commerce is honest, i.e. full disclosure on all known costs and benefits
What does pro-choice and pursuit of happiness mean when adults over 27 do not have absolute sovereignty over their bodies?
Neither the FDA nor smokers in the public domain should have the right to dictate what goes into people's bodies.

What I find stupid is when people reach the age of 18, they can gamble and smoke, but they need a prescription to buy drugs that are effective at reducing the urge to smoke and gamble, such as naltrexone, an opiate inhibitor, and buprenorphine
I support banning smoking on sidewalks, malls, parks and other places. I and
others have NEVER consented to have our lungs and sinuses raped and molested by
cigarettes and marijuana/cannabis smokers.
Let f0 be any faschist lung molester. Victims of lungs and sinuses rape and molestation should be able to extinguish the cigarette/cigar of f0 if they did not explicitely consent to get bothered by the smoke of f0's cigarette/cigar and they get the right to sue f0 for $10e6 in 2010 $ indexed to inflation / incident.
Smokers should use nicotine chewing gums, marijuana/cannabis brownies or other methods of drug delivery, such as a device like a
Smokeless cannabis delivery device efficient and less toxic
(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/uoc--scd051507.php)

inhibitors of the nicotine-metabolising CYP2A6 enzyme can help smokers curb the need to smoke(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-03/aof-ntd031711.php)
grapefruit is an inhibitors of the nicotine-metabolising CYP2A6 enzyme. It is worth trying chewing a nicotine gum with eating grapefruit as this could help keep the concentration of nicotine sufficiently high for longer period of time to satisfy nicotine craving.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CYP2A6 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapefruit)
this information should be clearly communicated to nicotine addicts as it will allow them to consume nicotine without degenerating into faschist lung molesters with the attitude:
I want to smoke and whether you like it or not, you have the duty to breathe the filth coming out of my cigarette and throw the cigarette butt often without extinguishing them on the sidewalk.
I support people's rights to sovereignty over their bodies and my own right to
sovereignty over my body.

Mutual acknowledgement of full body sovereignty for adults over the age of 27 should be 1 of the foundations of a civil society.

I support a comprehensive policy, that requires children by the the age of 12 to have basic knowledge about:
1-organic chemistry
2-chemistry of the various neurotransmitters
3-how drugs modulate activity of various neurotransmitters
4-how the brain is structured (reptilian part, frontal lobe, pleasure and pain centers, etc..)
5-how the various brain structures work
6-important findings in cognitive science, including the famous experiment of Filip Zimbardo and how most people follow the herd just for the sake of group acceptance.
7-introduction to the concept of addiction, advancements in treating addiction, such as:
7.1-Naltrexone (50mg oral dose) plus buprenorphine (4 mg sublingual) combination in the treatment of opioid dependence(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16401652)
7.2-Naltrexone (mean dose of 117mg/day) reported significantly greater decline in stealing behavior compared to those taking placebo(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-04/uom-dcu033109.php)
7.3-Wide range of drugs can be effective for treating gambling addiction in the short term. Prof. Pinhas Dannon of Tel Aviv University is recommending an extended treatment regimen for optimal results,
7.4-For long-term effectiveness gambling addicts need to stick out a course of treatment for at least 2 years in order for Naltrexone to work most efficiently(http://www.aftau.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=14326)
7.5-naltrexone commonly used for alcoholism curbs urges of pathological gamblers(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/uom-dcu061308.php)
7.6-Suppression of voluntary ethanol consumption in rats by gamma-butyrolactone(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gamma-butyrolactone)

GBL, injected intraperitoneally at the dose of 200 mg/kg, twice daily for 3 consecutive days, decreased ethanol intake by about 80% on the days of treatment, but did not reduce total fluid intake. Ethanol intake remained significantly reduced up to the 5th day following cessation of GBL(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6339856)
7.7-gabapentin, currently on the market to treat neuropathic pain and epilepsy, helps people to quit smoking marijuana/cannabis(http://www.scripps.edu/news/press/2012/20120424mason.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gabapentin)
7.8-generic drug gabapentin, which is already widely prescribed for epilepsy and some kinds of pain, appears to be safe and effective in the treatment of alcohol dependence. Mason and her colleagues randomly assigned each of 150 recently abstinent people with alcohol dependence to be treated with 900 mg or 1,800 mg of gabapentin/day or with a look-alike placebo. Over 12 weeks of treatment, the high-dose group ended up refraining from heavy drinking twice as often as the placebo group (45% vs. 23%) and entirely abstained 4 times as often (17% vs. 4%). The drug also significantly reduced the number of drinks consumed, as well as patient reports of cravings, depression and sleeplessness. None of the treated patients reported serious side effects. Patients who received the lower, 900-mg dose of gabapentin showed intermediate benefits compared to the high-dose group, likely reflecting what clinicians call a dose-response effect, a good indication that the treatment really is working. Could other GABA agonists, such as L-Theanine/L-Teanin(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theanine and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GABAergic) be useful in treating addiction (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/sri-cti103113.php)
Scientists Link Alcohol-Dependence Gene to Neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). The new research shows Nf1 regulates gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a neurotransmitter that lowers anxiety and increases feelings of relaxation(http://www.scripps.edu/news/press/2014/20140827sanna.html)

It is banned, although ethanol+marijuana/cannabis would be a better date rape drug,
because some people can misuse it. Instead it should be legal and studied as a
potential chemical to help with ethanol addiction.
8-how humans are predictably irrational(http://www.predictablyirrational.com/)
9-respect people's Sovereignty over their bodies.
Use a smokeless cannabis delivery inhaler device efficient and less toxic, that does not violate people's Sovereignty over their bodies.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/uoc--scd051507.php)
10-effect of smoking on athletic performance, especially endurance events.
11-students should get an accurate idea on the time and material it takes to raise a child before having a chance of getting pregnant.
12-make children aware that their brain is programmed to mindlessly imitate others and teach them to engage the frontal part of the brain and practice rejection of invitation to smoke, gamble and other addictive behavior.
13-The fact that people have sovereignty over their bodies does not give them the right to become a reservoir of germs to infect others, such as by not washing their hands, abusing antibiotics or refusing to get vaccinated.
Improving vaccination rates against the human papillomavirus (HPV) in boys is key to protecting both men and women(http://media.utoronto.ca/media-releases/education/vaccinating-boys-plays-key-role-in-hpv-prevention/)
14-People over the age of 27 have the right to their intact bodies, so they can exercise full sovereignty over their bodies. As a consequence, the barbaric procedure of genital mutilation or circumcision should be outlawed. Victims of genital mutilation or circumcision should be able to sue every imbecile who participated in the planning and execution of this barbaric procedure for $1 million in punitive damages indexed to inflation.
15-Subjecting A to excessive noise, that disturbs A's ability to sleep and concentrate without A's consent should be considered a violation of A's sovereignty over A's body. A should have the right to sue the offender for $1 million in punitive damages indexed to inflation. In 2011, 1500W speakers are available for < $150.

Tax Simplification
Use negative feedback to achieve stability. Behavior that causes increases of spending by the society should be taxed to pay for itself.
End all lifestyle subsidies. Have a floor of standard of living below which nobody should fall.

All elected representatives should have to file their tax forms without professional help, this will give them the incentive to keep the tax laws simple.

Eliminate corporate income tax as part of a package that also increases the minimum wage to a livable wage of $15/Hr and index it to inflation, decrease the work week and increase the number of vacations.
If that is not possible, allow companies to expense the dividends they pay to their shareholders.

Sales Tax of 30-10000% on Advertisement, Political Contributions and Lobbying. You have to think like a mathematician: Banning Political Contributions and Lobbying, which the court of supreme fools has outlawed, would be the equivalent of having infinity Sales Tax. Finite Sales Tax are still legal.

Sales Tax of 30-100% on compensations >= 100 times the minimum wage. Shareholders should approve compensations >= 100 times the minimum wage.

Tax Inflation Adjusted (Capital Gains and Dividends) as regular income, but exempt the 1st $15000/year of Dividend and Interest Income from Taxes and index it to inflation to encourage Americans to save.

Sales Tax of 50-1000% on Infertility Treatment. Overpopulation is a major driving factor in worldwide fossil fuel consumption and global warming.

Increase the Child support Age to 25 and make University Education, including Housing Free.

End deductions/allowances for Biological Children. It should be the reverse: the more Children individuals have the more resources they consume and the more Taxes they should pay. For every biological child a household has, add 10 thousand dollars to income when computing taxes and index it to inflation. For every biological child a household has, if 1 of the biological parents is < 23, add 20 thousand dollars to income when computing taxes and index it to inflation.

End deductions for mortgage interest. If it is not possible to immediately end deductions for mortgage interest, it could be done gradually over a period of 5 years. It is better to use that money, which all comes from the same economy, to have free University/Apprenticeship Education rather than subsidize borrowing money. Telling 18-year old people that they are now on their own and that they need to support themselves and borrow money to continue their Education and not even allowing them to deduct the Education loans and interest does not make any sense.

Reform the property tax. The property tax should be a function of what it costs to service the property.
This is unrelated to the value of the property. Schools should be financed by taxes on people with biological children.

End all subsidy to private transportation. Roads and Freeway construction and maintenance should be totally financed by a tax on fossil fuel and charge on every Km a vehicle drives.

Have a sales tax on behavior, that causes the society to increase spending. This will create a negative feedack loop that brings stability. Example, put a Sales Tax on junk food and use it to partly finance a single payer health plan.

Additional steps needed to combat Overpopulation and irresponsible breeding
Humans are the result of selfish memes and selfish genes.
Giving each person has the right to reproduce to infinity, but it is the duty of the rest of the society to support the progeny creates a dangereous positive feedback loop that will ensure a crash of the planet's ecosystem.
In nature, if an organism is on its own, if it starves or is killed by a predator, it cannot reproduce.
If organisms live in packs like wild dogs, wolves, only 1 male and 1 female reproduce.
My point is humans have to be able to make win/win deals with each other.
If you are starving or have no H2O, on your own you will die and cannot reproduce.
Society should be able to make a win/win deal with you: Society will provide you with food and H2O so you do not die, but you cannot reproduce or stop at 1.

Sales Tax of 50-1000% on Infertility Treatment. Overpopulation is a major driving factor in worldwide fossil fuel consumption and global warming.
Person receiving Infertility Treatment must prove ability to support new children until the age of 25. Otherwise, it should be illegal for doctor to treat the Infertility. If doctor treats the Infertility and recipient is unable to support the children without welfare, doctor is responsible for supporting new children until the age of 25.

Allow people to opt out of reproductive services, except abortion. This way people planning to reproduce should pay the average cost of a pregnancy in their premium. Really, if people don't have the $5000 - $6000 it costs to bring a child into the world, it means they don't have the $300 x 10e3 - $400 x 10e3 to raise a child and they should abstain from reproducing until they have funds and abort any unintended pregnancy. Insurance and government help are for unplanned events. Planned events should be paid for by the planner. Human females who undergo abortion should have 0 guilt and think of themselves as environmental heroines. Any imbecile obscurantist fool who objects to abortion should have to come up with $400 x 10e3 in 2010 $ to raise the output of the pregnancy or shut up. It would have been so much better if Human females would lay eggs instead of getting pregnant, this way performing an abortion would be as easy as making an omelet and serving it at the next republican fundraiser. This also shows that humans are the result of random evolution or created by some sort of fictitious supreme imbecile, but then who created the fictitious supreme imbecile?

States should support their foster children until the age of 25

Single payer insurance plan with negative feedback
Insurance and government help are for unplanned events. Planned events should be paid for by the planner
Allow people to opt out of reproductive services, except abortion. This way people planning to reproduce should pay the average cost of a pregnancy in their premium. Really, if people don't have the $5000 - $6000 it costs to bring a child into the world, it means they don't have the $300 x 10e3 - $400 x 10e3 to raise a child and they should abstain from reproducing until they have funds and abort any unintended pregnancy.
In 2013, no treatment will save your life, the most you can hope is it extends your life span and quality of your life
Daniel Callahan and Sherwin Nuland propose a radical reinvention of the American medical system requiring new ways of thinking about living, aging, and dying. They argue that a sustainable and more humane medical system in the US will have to reprioritize to emphasize public health and prevention for the young, and care not cure for the elderly(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-05/thc-wcw053111.php)
Traditional Medicare program allocates only 1% of total spending to overhead compared with 6% when the privatized portion of Medicare(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/pfan-str022013.php)
Lowering the cost of health care requires lowering the cost of medical education(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/uops-ime102913.php)
Medicaid paid for 45% of the 4 million births in the United States in 2010, an amount that has been rising over time, people on Medicaid should not reproduce, they should be grateful the society is providing them with subsidized medical care. It is important to end deductions/allowances for Biological Children. It should be the reverse: the more Children individuals have the more resources they consume and the more Taxes they should pay(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/gwus-mpf091013.php)
Internet searches on health symptoms can be used to identify drug side effects and could be used to develop a new kind of early warning system to boost drug safety(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/bmj-isc030513.php)
low-cost program of aerobic walking is just as effective as expensive clinical therapy in the treatment of lower back pain(http://www.aftau.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=18129)
Processing a prescription through an electronic ordering system can halve the likelihood of a drug error, and avert more than 17 million such incidents in US hospitals in one year alone(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/bmj-dps021913.php)
Governments around the world should stop squandering resources fighting an unwinnable war against illegal drugs, such as cocaine and heroin. Instead, they should use the cash to curb antibiotic misuse, including phasing out the use of these drugs in farming, along with factory farming, which poses a far more serious threat to human health(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/bmj-sd021913.php)
Researcher says extensive use of antibiotics in agriculture creating public health crisis, in the United States 80% of the antibiotics in the country are consumed in agriculture and aquaculture for the purpose of increasing food production. University of Calgary''s Aidan Hollis advocates user fees on non-human antibiotics use(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-12/uoc-rse122313.php)
An Emergency Room Decision-Support (ERDS) program can significantly reduce ER visits and hospital admissions among older adults on Medicare. This could have important economic implications, helping to reduce the nearly 33% of avoidable ER visits that contribute to about $18 billion in unnecessary healthcare costs each year(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/mali-dph091814.php)
You cannot have affordable health care with doctors, nurses and dentists graduating with loans > $200000 . All Students should be able to graduate with 0 loans.
In their review of malpractice payouts over $1 million, the researchers say those payments added up to roughly $1.4 billion a year, making up far less than 1% of national medical expenditures in the United States. Defensive medicine costs upwards of $60 billion a year.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/jhm-mp043013.php)

Some reasons why it is not the business of the government to subsidize lending and defend the price of housing
Price and value are 2 different things. For example, a tablet computer, such as an ipad, in 2012 is more powerful and more useful than a computer purchased in 1982.
in 2012 Apple's iPad 2 is as fast as the Cray-2 vector super-computer out of Cray Research from the 1980's (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE4NjU)
Should the government go out of its way and use the limited resources to make sure the price of a 1982 computer is higher in 2012 than in 1982? What algorithm do you use to determine the set of products and services that get price support?

The society has a fixed amount of resources. Different needs have to compete for these resources. It is better to to fully fund university education and apprenticeship and fully support young people under the age of 25 until they can support themselves before subsidizing lending.

Complete the conversion to metric started in 1866 in the United States
Sec. 204. Metric system authorized:
It shall be lawful throughout the United States of America to employ the weights and measures of the metric system; and no contract or dealing, or pleading in any court, shall be deemed invalid or liable to objection because the weights or measures expressed or referred to therein are weights or measures of the metric system
The use of the metric system made legal in the United States by the Metric Act of 1866 (Public Law 39-183). This law made it unlawful to refuse to trade or deal in metric quantities.
(http://www.us-metric.org/a-chronology-of-the-metric-system)
The law should be amended so that in any transaction, if 1 party asks it to be conducted in metric, the transaction should be conducted in metric. The offended party should get the right to sue the offender, who refuses to conduct the transaction in metric for > $10000/transaction indexed to inflation.
All equipment sold in the United States, that displays measurements, must be able to display in metric and should be configured by default to display in metric.
All high schools should teach the metric system at least 2 years before exposing children to the lunatic foot/pound system.
All laws should be expressed in the metric system.
All communications that receive public funding should be expressed in the metric system.
All public agencies that certify weights and measures should be able to certify in the metric system.
Ask people in the census, which system they prefer metric or foot/pound.
The metric system is the language of science.
The metric system was initially designed after the Earth:
10 million meters or 10000 Km = distance Equator to North Pole
The circumferance of the earth, around 40000Km was 1st correctly estimated by Eratosthenes of Alexandria(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes)
a cube of 0.1 meter = 1 liter
1 liter of H2O at its densest temperature, 4 deg Celsius, has a mass of 1 Kg
1 Newton = Force needed to accelerate 1 Kg by 1 meter/sec2
1 Newton = Force needed to be applied for 1 sec to change the quantity of movement/momentum of a mass by (1 Kg x m/sec) (F = d(mv)/dt ) (F and v are 3 dimensional vectors, all units are in metric)
1 Pascal = Pressure exerted by 1 Newton uniformly over a surface of 1 m2
Standard atmospheric Pressure = 100000 Pascals
At a pressure of 1 atmosphere, H2O freezes at 0 deg Celsius/273.15 kelvin and boils at 100 deg Celsius/373.15 kelvin

1 joule = energy generated by 1 Newton moving by 1 m in the same direction as the force
1 kilocalorie = amount of heat energy necessary to heat 1 Kg of H2O by 1 deg Celsius
1 kilocalorie = 4180 joules
1 g of carbohydrates gives approximately 4 kilocalories when it combusts completely in O2
1 g of fat gives approximately 9 kilocalories when it combusts completely in O2
12 grams of the isotope C 12 (6 protons + 6 neutrons) contain 1 mole or Avogadro's number of C 12 atoms.
1 mole or Avogadro's number = 6.023 x 10e23.
Einstein's famous equation, E = m x c^2 works only in metric: m is in Kg, c = 3 x 10^8 m/s , E = energy in joules, 1 wh = 3600 (watt-sec or joules). 1 more reason to dump the stupid moronic idiotic foot/pound system and switch to metric.
Thus in the metric system, 1 Kg of matter that gets completely converted into energy, would generate 9 x 10^16 Joules or (9 x 10^16/3600000) = 2.5 x 10^10 KWH
To apply Einstein's famous equation in non-metric units, the unit of energy would be defined as the kinetic energy of 2 units of mass moving at a speed of 1 unit of length/sec and the speed of light in vacuum expressed in units of length/sec.
Since we already have 1 Volt x 1 Amp x 1 sec = 1 Joule of electrical energy, for non-metric units, you would have to define another obscure unit of energy.
At a pressure of 1 atmosphere and 0 deg Celsius/273.15 kelvin, 1 mole or Avogadro's number of perfect gas molecules, Helium is the closest to satisfying the requirements of being a perfect gas, occupy 22.4 liters .
Table of temperature and pressure vs altitude(http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphère_normalisée)
you can find more precise metric definitions and values of constants at
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_base_units, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_SI_definitions and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_constant)

Eliminate the primary and switch to instant runoff with at least 16 choices
ASUC = Associated Students of the University of California
The green party has been proposing for several years instant runoff, a system
of voting under which you can rank the candidates:you would indicate on the
ballot your 1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice etc.
If any candidate x1 gets over 50% of the 1st choice vote, x1 wins.
The candidate who got the least of the 1st choice votes is eliminated and then
you examine the 2nd choice votes and you distribute them appropriately to the
other candidates according to what was the 2nd choice of each of these votes.
This procedure is repeated until 1 candidate gets over 50% of the vote.
This way, if your 1st choice does not win, your vote still goes to the 2nd
choice or 3rd choice.
The ASUC has been using instant runoff to elect the president and executive vice presidents.
If commercial voting companies cannot implement instant runoff with at least 16 choices, the ASUC can be hired to do it.

Some thoughts on human communications
A --> B --> C
Let I0 be the information A intends for C to receive.
A transmits I0 to B
B receives and understands I0+err0=I1
B transmits I1 to C
C receives and understands I1+err1=I2

My point is there are always errors in human communications. The more links, the greater the errors.
To minimize errors, it is best for A to communicate directly to C.
Also, this model helps understand why government malfunctions badly sometimes.
Voter --> elected representative --> Director of government agency ... (many layers of bureaucracy) --> government employee executing wishes of voters

1 of the most common attack spread through the web is the drive-by download, which developed into exploit kits. In these attacks, the unaware user visits a web page containing malicious code, typically written in javascript. The malicious code acquires information on the context where it is executed in order to determine which exploits can be used to compromise the system. If a vulnerable component is found, the corresponding exploit is launched. In case of success, another piece of malware, such as a trojan, is downloaded and executed on the compromised machine.(http://umbfer.github.io/html5malware)

Technical explanation of The MySpace Worm, javascript is required to propagate the worm. If browsers did not have javascript/client side scripting enabled, worm could not propagate (http://namb.la/popular/tech.html)

XSS (cross-site scripting) Attacks Against IoT Wind Turbines()

Cross-site scripting carried out on websites accounted for roughly 84% of all security vulnerabilities documented by Symantec as of 2007
users, if they choose, can disable javascript/client side scripting in their browsers before using the application. In this way, even potentially malicious client-side scripts could be inserted unescaped on a page, and users would not be susceptible to XSS attacks.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_scripting)

Some findings of modern cognitive science
Everyone inherits 2 copies of the catecho-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene,
1 from each parent. It codes for the enzyme that metabolizes
neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine and comes in 2 common
versions. 1 version, met, contains the amino acid methionine at a point in
its chemical sequence where the other version, val, contains a valine.
Depending on the mix of variants inherited, a person's COMT genes can be typed
met/met, val/val, or val/met. val/val. val/val subjects on amphetamine/amfetamine(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/amphetamine and http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/amfetamin) showed more efficient frontal lobe function(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-05/niom-gep050703.php)
catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene marker for placebo response identified in IBS patients: People with 2 copies of met, the "met/mets," have 3 to 4 times more dopamine available in their prefrontal cortex, the brain area associated with cognition, personality expression, decision making and social behavior than the people with 2 copies of val, among the individuals who had received placebo treatment from the warm supportive health care providers, there was a striking difference: the "met/mets" demonstrated a 6-fold greater improvement in their IBS symptoms relative to the "val/vals."(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/bidm-gmf102112.php)
participants with the Met/Met genotype of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene showed more improvement with training and performed better than did those in the other 2 genotype (Val/Met and Val/Val) groups(https://www.hfes.org/Web/DetailNews.aspx?ID=326 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catechol-O-methyl_transferase)

California's 3-strikes law has not reduced violent crime, but has contributed significantly to the state's financial woes by substantially increasing the prison population (http://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/3557)

study explains how power can fuel overconfidence, which negatively impacts decision-making
overall sense of control that comes with power tends to make people feel overconfident in their ability to make good decisions
This leaves the powerful vulnerable to making overconfident decisions that lead them to dead-end alleys
research team hypothesized that blocking the subjective sense of power among high-power participants, by directing attention to the limits of their personal competence, would cause their overconfidence to go away
The most effective leaders bring people around them who critique them. As a power holder, the smartest thing you might ever do is bring people together who will inspect your thinking and who aren't afraid to challenge your ideas
(reminds me of power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and The Dunning-Kruger effect, a cognitive bias in which unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average)(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/umso-dpc030112.php and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dunning-kruger_effect)

New research suggests that the upper classes are more likely to behave dishonorably than those lower on the economic spectrum. The rich are more likely to cheat, steal, and even disobey traffic laws than those with less money and power
Studies involving money games show that upper-class subjects keep more for themselves, and U.S. surveys find that the rich give a smaller percentage of their income to charity than do the poo
Drivers of shiny, expensive cars were 3 times more likely than those of old clunkers to plow through a crosswalk, failing to yield to pedestrians as required by California state law. High-status motorists were also 4 times more likely than those with cheaper, older cars to cut off other drivers at a four-way stop.
those with power are more apt to condemn behavior that they themselves engage in(http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/02/shame-on-the-rich.html, http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/02/21/1118373109 and http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/02/27/greed)

Elderly subjects who underwent temporal training using Fast ForWord Language, a program comprised of several computer games designed to improve memory, attention, and sequencing abilities, improved not only the rate at which they processed auditory information, but also in other cognitive areas(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-08/ip-srp082012.php)

Misinformation is especially sticky when it conforms to our preexisting political, religious, or social point of view. Because of this, ideology and personal worldviews can be especially difficult obstacles to overcome, rejecting information actually requires cognitive effort. Lewandowsky and colleagues offer some strategies for setting the record straight.
Provide people with a narrative that replaces the gap left by false information
Focus on the facts you want to highlight, rather than the myths
Make sure that the information you want people to take away is simple and brief
Consider your audience and the beliefs they are likely to hold
Strengthen your message through repetition
(http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/misinformation-psychological-science-shows-why-it-sticks-and-how-to-fix-it.html)

Marijuana/cannabis use may cause cannabinoid hyperemesis a little-known but costly effect that researchers suggest is a serious burden to the health care system as it often leads to expensive diagnostic tests and ineffective treatments in an effort to find the cause(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/acog-mum101912.php)

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), up to 80% of scam victims are over 65. 1 explanation may lie in a brain region that serves as a built-in crook detector. Called the anterior insula, this structure, which fires up in response to the face of an unsavory character, is less active in older people, possibly making them less cagey than younger folks(http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/12/why-old-people-get-scammed.html)

A team of scientists who analyzed the brain tissue of renowned NFL linebacker Junior Seau after his suicide in 2012 have concluded the football player suffered a debilitating brain disease likely caused by two decades worth of hits to the head. A team of independent researchers who did not know they were studying Seau's brain all concluded he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease typically caused by multiple hits to the head(http://abcnews.go.com/US/junior-seau-diagnosed-brain-disease-caused-hits-head/story?id=18171785)

Studying over time and quizzing yourself on material before the big test are highly effective learning strategies. Both techniques have been shown to boost students' performance across many different kinds of tests, and their effectiveness has been repeatedly demonstrated for students of all ages. 5 of the techniques received a low utility rating from the researchers. Notably, these techniques are some of the most common learning strategies used by students, including summarization, highlighting and underlining, and rereading(http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/which-study-strategies-make-the-grade.html)

Why entrepreneurs innovate better than managers: managers and entrepreneurs did not differ in the probability with which they would undertake explorative courses of action. But when entrepreneurs did select explorative tasks, they used both the left and right sides of the frontal cortex of their brain whereas managers only used their left parts of the frontal cortex(http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/why-entrepreneurs-innovate-better-managerse)

Researchers are able to detect deficits in social attention in infants as young as 6 months of age who later develop Autism Spectrum Disorders. The results showed that these infants paid less attention to people and their activities than typically developing babies(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/yu-yrs020513.php)

For chronic pain sufferers, such as people who develop back pain after a car accident, avoiding the harmful effects of stress may be key to managing their condition. This is particularly important for people with a smaller-than-average hippocampus, as these individuals seem to be particularly vulnerable to stress(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/uom-pcp022213.php)

Laser Light Zaps Away Cocaine Addiction: Billy Chen and his colleagues took light-sensitive proteins called rhodopsins and used genetic engineering to insert them into neurons in the rat’s prefrontal cortex. Activating this region with a laser tuned to the rhodopsins turned the nerve cells on and off. Turning on these cells wiped out the compulsive behavior, while switching them off turned the non-addicted ones into addicted, researchers found.(http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2013/04/104831/laser-light-zaps-away-cocaine-addiction)

Teenagers who increased the days on which they got just 20 minutes of exercise were able to cut down on their smoking habit. And teenage smokers were more likely to quit altogether if they participated in a smoking cessation/fitness program and they ramped up the days on which they got at least 30 minutes of physical activity(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/gwu-sdw040413.php)

The nocebo effect: media reports may trigger symptoms of a disease. Media reports about substances that are supposedly hazardous to health may cause suggestible people to develop symptoms of a disease even though there is no objective reason for doing so. This is the conclusion of a study of the phenomenon known as electromagnetic hypersensitivity(http://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/16366_ENG_HTML.php)

Women whose breast cancer had been treated with chemotherapy demonstrated improved executive function, such as cognitive flexibility, verbal fluency and processing speed after using exercises developed by Lumosity, the leading online cognitive training program. The study also found significant improvement in self-reported measures of everyday executive function and observed some transfer to verbal memory(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/l-cti051313.php)

Talking on a hands-free device while behind the wheel can lead to a sharp increase in errors that could imperil other drivers on the road, drivers who talk using a hands-free cellular device made significantly more driving errors, such as crossing the centre line, speeding and changing lanes without signalling, compared with just driving alone.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/uoa-dah052413.php)

Seniors use less effective reference frames to visualize nearby objects, some of the day-to-day reaching-and-grasping difficulties may be be caused by changes in the mental frame of reference that older adults use to visualize nearby objects(https://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/25511.aspx)

objectification frees up mental resources, whereas animalistic dehumanization uses up all our resources, both empathetic and analytic, both forms of humanization are marked by sympathy, mechanistic dehumanizing is marked by indifference and animalistic dehumanizing by disgust(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/cwru-awo060613.php)

Organizations would benefit from taking individuals' confidence with a grain of salt. Prof. Anderson hopes this research will give people the incentive to look for more objective indices of ability and merit in others, instead of overvaluing unsubstantiated confidence(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-08/uoc--wap081312.php)

Impulsive behavior, in particular, including acting out in class, engaging in drug or alcohol abuse, and risky sexual behaviors, is something that gets adolescents in trouble. The YES! program, run by the nonprofit International Association for Human Values, includes yoga-based breathing practices, among other techniques, and the research findings show that a little bit of breathing can go a long way. The scientists report that students who went through the 4-week YES! for Schools program felt less impulsive, while students in a control group that didn't participate in the program showed no change.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/uoc--ntt070913.php)

Scientists identify key brain circuits that control compulsive drinking in rats, found they could reduce compulsive drinking in rats by inhibiting key neural pathways that run between the prefrontal cortex, which is involved with higher functions such as critical thinking and risk assessment, and the nucleus accumbens, a critical area for reward and motivation.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/uoc--gcs072213.php)

Criminals with psychopathy characteristically show a reduced ability to empathise with others, including their victims. Evidence suggests they are also more likely to reoffend upon release than criminals without the psychiatric condition. Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterised by superficial charm, pathological lying and a diminished capacity for remorse. Psychopaths do not lack empathy, rather they can switch it on at will(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23431793)

people who were overconfident, introverted, or women were less able to accurately distinguish between legitimate and phishing e-mails. Although 89% of the participants indicted they were confident in their ability to identify malicious e-mails, 92% of them misclassified phishing e-mails. Almost 52% in the study misclassified more than half the phishing e-mails, and 54% deleted at least one authentic e-mail, subjects who self-reported as "less trusting, introverts, or less open to new experiences" were more likely to delete legitimate e-mails(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/hfae-pol072413.php)

gaming condition that emphasized maintenance and rapid switching between multiple information and action sources led to a large increase in cognitive flexibility as measured by a wide array of non-video gaming tasks. Theoretically, the results suggest that the distributed brain networks supporting cognitive flexibility can be tuned by engrossing video game experience that stresses maintenance and rapid manipulation of multiple information sources. Practically, these results suggest avenues for increasing cognitive function.(http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0070350)

When the teen drivers listened to their preferred music, virtually all (98%) demonstrated an average of 3 deficient driving behaviors in at least one of the trips. Nearly 1/3 of those (32%) required a a sudden verbal warning or command for action, and 20% needed an assisted steering or braking maneuver to prevent an imminent accident. These errors included speeding, tailgating, careless lane switching, passing vehicles and one-handed driving. Male novice drivers in particular make more frequent and serious mistakes listening to their preferred music than their less aggressive, female counterparts.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/aabu-tdm082213.php)

Most parents who yell at their adolescent children wouldn't dream of physically punishing their teens. Yet their use of harsh verbal discipline, defined as shouting, cursing, or using insults, may be just as detrimental to the long-term well-being of adolescents.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/uop-ydh090413.php)

Scientists at UC San Francisco are reporting that they have found a way to reverse some of the negative effects of aging on the brain, using a video game designed to improve cognitive control. In the game, which was developed by the UCSF researchers, participants race a car around a winding track while a variety of road signs pop up. Drivers are instructed to keep an eye out for a specific type of sign, while ignoring all the rest, and to press a button whenever that particular sign appears. The need to switch rapidly from driving to responding to the signs, i.e. multitasking, generates interference in the brain that undermines performance. The researchers found that this interference increases dramatically across the adult lifespan. But after receiving just 12 hours of training on the game, spread over a month, the 60- to 85-year-old study participants improved their performance until it surpassed that of 20-somethings who played the game for the first time. The training also improved the participants' performance in 2 other important cognitive areas: working memory and sustained attention. And participants maintained their skills at the video games 6x months after the training had ended.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/uoc--tto082913.php)

degeneration of a small, wishbone-shaped structure deep inside the brain may provide the earliest clues to future cognitive decline, long before healthy older people exhibit clinical symptoms of memory loss or dementia, study found that the only discernible brain differences between normal people who later developed cognitive impairment and those who did not were changes in their fornix, an organ that carries messages to and from the hippocampus, and that has long been known to play a role in memory(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/uoc--bcl090913.php)

men with wider faces are more aggressive, less trustworthy and more prone to engaging in deception, individuals behave more selfishly when interacting with men with wider faces and this selfish behavior elicits selfish behavior in others(http://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/17624)

Alzheimer's progression tracked prior to dementia. Stage 1: Levels of amyloid beta, a protein fragment produced by the brain, begin to fall in the spinal fluid. This indicates that the substance is beginning to form plaques in the brain. Stage 2: Levels of tau protein start to rise in the spinal fluid, indicating that brain cells are beginning to die. Amyloid beta levels are still abnormal and may continue to fall. Stage 3: In the presence of abnormal amyloid and tau biomarker levels, subtle cognitive changes can be detected by neuropsychological testing. By themselves, these changes cannot establish a clinical diagnosis of dementia. 5 years after their initial evaluation, 11% of the stage 1 group, 26% of the stage 2 group, and 52% of the stage 3 group had been diagnosed with symptomatic Alzheimer's.(http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/25876.aspx)

Using CHICA, Child Health Improvement through Computer Automation, to pre-screen for ADHD increased the likelihood that pediatricians screened for and documented appropriate, evidence-based criteria to diagnose ADHD, and made them more likely to seek more information from parents and school. It also made physicians more likely to screen child for anxiety and depression(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/iu-ria092413.php)

Magnetic stimulation of the brain helps some people decrease their smoking, and even quit altogether for up to 6 months after treatment. Stimulating an area of the brain associated with drug reward, the subthalamic nucleus, reduces rats' motivation to take heroin. Research suggests an area of the brain known as the insula may be overactive in people with gambling problems. People with damage to this area were less prone to the motivations of gamblers(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/sfn-sep111213.php)

Extroverted and introverted children respond differently to environmental cues, such as plate size, when it comes to portion control. When serving themselves, extraverted kids were far more likely to be impacted by the size of the bowl; they served a heaping 33.1% more breakfast in the large bowl, compared to introverted kids who only served themselves 5.6% more when bowl size increased. This indicates that the extraverted kids were more influenced by the external cue of bowl-size than introverted kids were. This benefit for introverted kids, however, is only present when serving themselves; when served by adults, all kids requested more cereal to fill up the the large bowl than the small bowl.(http://foodpsychology.cornell.edu/op/extravert-intravert)

medication used to treat ADHD in adult men can save lives on the road, individuals with ADHD have an approximately 45% increased risk of being involved in serious transport accidents, such as car or motorcycle accidents, compared to individuals without ADHD(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-01/ki-ams012714.php)

anticonvulsant medication, topiramate, previously shown to reduce drinking in patients committed to abstinence from alcohol, can also be helpful in treating problem drinkers whose aim is to curb their alcohol consumption, randomized double-blind trial included a total of 138 heavy drinkers, approximately half of whom received 12 weeks of treatment with topiramate at a maximal dosage of 200 mg/day and half of whom received a placebo. By the end of treatment, the odds of experiencing a heavy drinking day in the placebo group was five times more than that of the topiramate group; and the number of patients who experienced no heavy drinking days on the last four weeks of treatment in the topirmate group was more than double that of the placebo group. In addition, topiramate patients reported more abstinent days than placebo patients. Only individuals with a certain form of the kainate (glutamate) receptor reduced drinking with topiramate treatment(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/uops-pst021314.php and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topiramate)

Simple vision test performed on the sidelines may help determine whether athletes have suffered a concussion. The time to complete the King-Devick test (usually < 1 minute) was longer for 79% of the athletes after the injury. A test of rapid number naming, the King-Devick test requires intact eye movements, language and concentration, all of which can be impaired as a result of concussion. When the test results were combined with those of the Standardized Assessment of Concussion and the Balance Error Scoring System, 100% of the concussions were identified.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/aaon-met021214.php and http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-02/uops-sta020211.php)

participants who began using cannabis/marijuana at the age of 16 or younger demonstrated brain variations that indicate arrested brain development in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for judgment, reasoning and complex thinking. Individuals who started using cannabis/marijuana after age 16 showed the opposite effect and demonstrated signs of accelerated brain aging(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-02/cfb-sao021016.php)

peacemaking efforts such as apologies, offers of compensation and owning up to one's responsibility increase forgiveness and reduce anger, by making the aggressor seem more valuable as a relationship partner and by causing the victim to feel less at risk of getting hurt again by the transgressor(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-07/uom-tpo071414.php)

Modern office workers are expected to multitask regularly, often juggling multiple projects and priorities over the course of a day, ongoing interruptions can negatively affect the quality of work(http://www.hfes.org/Web/DetailNews.aspx?ID=343)

teenagers are far more sensitive than adults to the immediate effect or reward of their behaviors. Even when a behavior is no longer in a teenager's best interest to continue, they will because the effect of the reward is still there and lasts much longer in adolescents than in adults(http://now.uiowa.edu/2014/09/sometimes-adolescents-just-cant-resist)

Virtual reality may find use in assessing sex offenders. People who have been charged with sexual offenses typically have to undergo psychotherapy in order to control their deviant impulses. According to researchers at the University of Montreal, virtual reality may provide the best method of determining if that therapy has indeed worked, before those offenders are released back into the public.(http://www.gizmag.com/virtual-reality-sex-offenders/34557)

a protein, FXR1P (Fragile X Related Protein 1), was responsible for suppressing the production of molecules required for building new memories. When FXR1P was selectively removed from certain parts of the brain, these new molecules were produced that strengthened connections between brain cells and this correlated with improved memory and recall in the mice(http://muhc.ca/newsroom/news/total-recall-science-behind-it)

Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Training cognitive training can improve brain performance of students in poverty, the cognitive gains demonstrated after short-term, intensive training in this research suggest that middle school is an appropriate and beneficial time to teach students strategies to enhance understanding and the ability to infer global meanings from information beyond the explicit facts(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-12/cfb-ssc120414.php)

advice to anyone trying to choose from many options:1. Divide the options into piles of 4, 2. Choose the best option from each pile, 3. Put the winners from the first round into a new finalist pile, 4. Choose the best option from winners of the earlier 4 selections.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-02/giot-cac020315.php)

individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) have significantly more difficulty with gist reasoning than traditional cognitive tests. Gist reasoning characterizes a meaningful, complex cognitive capacity. Assessing how well one understands and expresses big ideas from information they are exposed, commonly known as an ability to "get the gist", is window into real life functionality.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-02/cfb-cfb020315.php)

A study conducted by researchers at Kansas State University is the first to demonstrate increases in both self-control and timing precision as a result of a time-based intervention. This new research may be an important clue for developing behavioral approaches to treat disorders like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, substance abuse and obesity.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-02/ksu-ttc020415.php)

Looking back at the brain scans of the 44 smokers who quit successfully, the researchers found they had something in common before they stopped smoking, better synchrony (coordinated activity) between the insula, home to urges and cravings, and the somatosensory cortex, a part of the brain that is central to our sense of touch and motor control, smokers who suffer damage to the insula appear to spontaneously lose interest in smoking(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-05/dumc-bos051115.php)

simple 2-hour emotional awareness course aimed at making young offenders less aggressive could hold the key to significantly reducing the seriousness of their future crimes, psychologists from Cardiff University recorded a 44% drop in the severity of crimes committed by persistent reoffenders, six months following the completion of a course designed to improve their ability to recognise other people's emotions(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-07/cu-sri070315.php)

belief in God and prejudice towards immigrants can be reduced by directing magnetic energy into the brain, people in whom the targeted brain region was temporarily shut down reported 32.8% less belief in God, angels, or heaven. They were also 28.5% more positive in their feelings toward an immigrant who criticised their country(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/uoy-rti101215.php)

Research shows a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.05% has the same effect as being awake for 17 hours, and a BAC of 0.1% is roughly 20 hours, but drivers don't consider the impairment to be the same. Drivers are more likely to get behind the wheel drowsy than drunk despite it being just as dangerous, and the worst offenders are those under 30(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/quot-ydd101315.php)

People are more likely to think and behave mindlessly, buying things, eating more and performing poorly on cognitive reasoning tests when they encounter a cultural situation that meets their expectations. The opposite is true for people confronted with moments of cultural disfluency, such as the wrong holiday plates at a party or a goodbye-and-good-riddance obituary. Then people perform better on cognitive reasoning tests and are less likely to succumb to impulse purchases and consumption(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/uosc-cbm101315.php)

children growing up in households that weren't religious were significantly more likely to share than were children growing up in religious homes
The children from nonreligious households left 4.1 stickers on average, a statistically significant difference from Christian children (3.3) and Muslim ones (3.2). Nonreligious children tended to rank the incidents as less mean. Muslim children on average gave the highest rankings and sought harsher punishments than either their Christian or secular counterparts(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/cp-drm102915.php and http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/cp-drm102915.php)

Using a simple game in which candy is distributed between two players, eventually running tests in Canada, India, Mexico, Peru, Senegal, Uganda and the U.S., researchers found that children were quick to reject unfair deals, but in 3 countries, the U.S., Canada, and Uganda, hildren were also willing to reject deals unfair to others(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/hu-afo111715.php)

loneliness leads to fight-or-flight stress signaling, which can ultimately affect the production of white blood cells, response is characterized by an increased expression of genes involved in inflammation and a decreased expression of genes involved in antiviral responses. Essentially, lonely people had a less effective immune response and more inflammation than non-lonely people(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/uoc-ltc112015.php)

The neurotransmitters acetylcholine and glutamate are thought to influence nicotine dependence in the habenula, a region of the brain, researchers suggest that acetylcholine regulates how much glutamate is released into the synapse, and at what frequency. Removing acetylcholine from the habenula caused the mice to become insensitive to the rewarding properties of nicotine and they did not develop a tolerance to continued nicotine exposure. In addition, these mice did not experience withdrawal symptoms, such as body shakes and scratching. These findings and others indicate that without acetylcholine, nicotine addiction would not occur(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-12/ru-srn120115.php)

vaccine that could increase the number of antibodies that could attach to nicotine molecules. Testing in mice found that the vaccine delayed the effects of nicotine within the first 10 minutes after injection. They also found that treated mice had lower concentrations of nicotine in their brains, which is where the drug exerts its effects(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-03/acs-nvd030916.php)

Young people with behavioural problems, such as antisocial and aggressive behaviour, show reduced grey matter volume in a number of areas of the brain, specifically within the amygdala, the insula, and the prefrontal cortex. These brain areas are important for decision-making, empathic responses, reading facial expressions and emotion regulation; key cognitive and affective processes that are shown to be deficient in youths with behavioural problems.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-12/uob-bpi120315.php)

To give good directions, it is not enough to say the right things: saying them in the right order is also important, sentences that start with a prominent landmark and end with the object of interest work better than sentences where this order is reversed(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-12/f-ldt120315.php)

why people are biased toward treating negative actions as intentional but positive actions as unintentional: If the action produced a negative effect, participants were more likely to draw on brain areas involved in processing emotion (in particular, the amygdala, a pair of almond-shaped structures deep in the brain that is well known for its role in processing negative emotions).(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-12/du-bse120315.php)

team of scientists finds little evidence to support speed reading as a shortcut to understanding and remembering large volumes of written content in a short period of time and urge people to maintain a healthy dose of skepticism and ask for supporting scientific evidence when someone proposes a speed reading method that will double or triple their reading speed without sacrificing a complete understanding, data suggest that the most effective speed readers are actually effective skimmers who already have considerable familiarity with the topic at hand and are thus able to pick out key points quickly(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-01/afps-srp011416.php)

ancient Jewish law that said a suspect could not be convicted of a capital crime if all judges unanimously handed down a guilty verdict validated by overwhelming evidence without a dissenting opinion can in fact weaken the credibility of a case, or point to a failure of the system(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-01/uoa-oei011216.php)

Adding flashing lights and music to gambling encourages risky decision-making, even if you're a rat. When the scientists gave the rats a drug that blocked the action of a specific dopamine receptor that has been linked to addiction, the rats no longer acted like problem gamblers. But the dopamine blockers had minimal effect on rats who gambled without the flashing lights and sound cues.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-01/uobc-fla011916.php)

The conflict between science and religion may have its origins in the structure of our brains. To believe in a supernatural god or universal spirit, people appear to suppress the brain network used for analytical thinking and engage the empathetic network, the scientists say. When thinking analytically about the physical world, people appear to do the opposite.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-03/cwru-tcb032116.php)

6 elements of an effective apology, according to science: 1. Expression of regret, 2. Explanation of what went wrong, 3. Acknowledgment of responsibility, 4. Declaration of repentance, 5. Offer of repair, 6. Request for forgiveness, the most important component is an acknowledgement of responsibility. Say it is your fault, that you made a mistake, 2nd most important element was an offer of repair(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/osu-t6e041116.php)

male batterers, in comparison to other criminals, show a greater activation in the anterior cingulate cortex and in the medial prefrontal cortex, and a smaller reaction in the superior prefrontal cortex in response to images of intimate partner violence as compared to neutral images(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/uog-tbo041416.php)

aroma of rosemary essential oil may improve prospective memory/cognitive functioning in healthy adults/ability of people over 65 to remember events and to remember to complete tasks at particular times in the future. In terms of mood, rosemary significantly increased alertness and lavender significantly increased calmness and contentedness compared to the no aroma control condition(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/bps-rac042716.php)

A specific part of the brain called the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex was the only part of the brain that was activated when learning to help other people. Put another way, the subgenual anterior cingulate seems to be especially tuned to benefiting other people(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-08/uoo-sft081216.php)

possible link between mind wandering and aging: those who reported more mind wandering had shorter telomeres, while those who reported more presence in the moment, or having a greater focus and engagement with their current activities, had longer telomeres, even after adjusting for current stress(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-11/uoc--wma111612.php)

Longer sleep duration associated with lower incidence of calcification in coronary arteries
The incidence of calcification at 5 years was 12.3% (n = 61 participants). After
adjusting for age, sex, race, education, smoking and apnea risk, the researchers found that
one hour more of sleep per night decreased the estimated odds of calcification by 33%.
The magnitude of the observed association was similar to sizable differences in established
coronary risk factors (e.g., 1 additional hour of sleep reduced risk similarly to a reduction
of 16.5 mm Hg in systolic blood pressure). No potential mediators appreciably altered the
magnitude or significance of sleep. Alternative sleep metrics were not significantly
associated with calcification.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-12/jaaj-lsd121808.php)

From Matthew Walker, a world class sleep researcher at University of California, Berkeley, he appeared on 60 minutes: Sounds stop body from entering what's called "deep sleep" after 4 nights without deep sleep they have found that, like prior study subjects, he is hungrier, less alert, and most importantly, his body is no longer able to metabolize sugar effectively, putting him temporarily at increased risk for Type 2 diabetes(http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/14/60minutes/main3939721_page5.shtml)

Sleep deprivation causes some people to shift from a more automatic, implicit process of information categorization (information-integration) to a more controlled, explicit process (rule-based). This use of rule-based strategies in a task in which information-integration strategies are optimal can lead to potentially devastating errors when quick and accurate categorization is fundamental to survival(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-11/aaos-sst102809.php)

Compared to individuals with normal hearing, those individuals with a mild, moderate and severe hearing loss, respectively, had a 2- , 3- and 5- fold increased risk of developing dementia over the course of the study(http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=18108)

Simple measures to promote sleep can reduce delirium in intensive care patients, Delirium can lead to short- and long-term confusion and memory problems. A team of doctors, nurses, and others in the medical intensive care unit at Johns Hopkins implemented a project to reduce nighttime noise, light, and staff interruptions, and switching certain medications. They were able to reduce delirium and improve patient perceptions about the quality of their sleep.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/jhm-smt021913.php)

Study finds that insomnia may be an important indicator of future hospitalization among middle-aged and older adults. Insomnia symptoms include difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or both, and individuals with insomnia often report getting too little sleep, having poor sleep quality and not feeling refreshed when they wake up.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/jhub-fha050913.php)

neurobiological evidence for dysfunction in the neural circuitry underlying emotion regulation in people with insomnia, which may have implications for the risk relationship between insomnia and depression(http://www.aasmnet.org/articles.aspx?id=3911)

Sleep after learning strengthens connections between brain cells and enhances memory, sleep after learning encourages the growth of dendritic spines, the tiny protrusions from brain cells that connect to other brain cells and facilitate the passage of information across synapses(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-06/nlmc-sal060514.php)

mothers who worked more than 35 hours per week were more likely to experience insufficient sleep compared with mothers who worked fewer hours, while children were more likely to experience insufficient sleep when their mothers worked between 20 and 40 hours(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-11/w-pws110414.php)

Disturbed sleep could be an early target in preventing cognitive deficits later in life according to a study presented at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology annual meeting. Amyloid, a protein which is elevated in the brains of Alzheimer's Disease patients, was found in higher concentrations in the brains of healthy research patients who reported being sleepy and less rested. Higher amyloid in these regions has been linked to sleep disturbances(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-12/acon-sdl120214.php)

paid work time is the primary waking activity exchanged for sleep. The study also suggests that chronic sleep loss potentially could be prevented by strategies that make work start times more flexible(http://www.aasmnet.org/articles.aspx?id=5230)

walking, as well as aerobics/calisthenics, biking, gardening, golfing, running, weight-lifting, and yoga/Pilates are associated with better sleep habits, compared to no activity, other types of physical activity, such as household and childcare, work are associated with increased cases of poor sleep habits(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-06/uops-psm060415.php)

Sleep deprivation affects stem cells, reducing transplant efficiency. A sleep deficit of just 4 hours affects by as much as 50% the ability of stem cells of the blood and immune system to migrate to the proper spots in the bone marrow of recipient mice and churn out the cell types necessary to reconstitute a damaged immune system.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/sumc-sda101215.php)

Stress, including sleep disturbance, is a major contributor to inflammation in the body, treatment for insomnia, either by cognitive behavioral therapy or the movement meditation tai chi, reduces inflammation levels in older adults over 55 years of age.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/e-bsa110515.php)

drowsy driving is a serious public health concern requiring greater public awareness and increased efforts to improve preventive education. Drowsiness compromises driving ability by reducing alertness and attentiveness, delaying reaction times, and hindering decision-making skills. Drowsy driving also tends to occur at high speeds, and the driver is often unable to attempt to avoid a crash, resulting in serious accidents. drowsy driving causes an average of 328,000 crashes annually in the U.S., including 6,400 fatal crashes. Young drivers between the ages of 16 and 24 years are most at risk of getting into an accident while driving drowsy, and males have a higher risk than females.(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/aaos-ndd111715.php and http://www.projecthealthysleep.org)

eating less fiber, more saturated fat and more sugar is associated with lighter, less restorative, and more disrupted sleep, greater fiber intake predicted more time spent in the stage of deep, slow wave sleep. In contrast, a higher percentage of energy from saturated fat predicted less slow wave sleep. Greater sugar intake also was associated with more arousals from sleep(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-01/aaos-sst_1011416.php)

sleep restriction boosts endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol signal that may increase the hedonic aspect of food intake, the pleasure and satisfaction gained from eating, sleep-restricted study subjects reported higher scores for hunger and stronger desire to eat. When given access to snacks, they ate nearly twice as much fat as when they had slept for 8 hours(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-02/uocm-slb022516.php)

bilingual adults have more activity in areas associated with executive function, a set of mental abilities that includes problem-solving, shifting attention and other desirable cognitive traits, bilingualism-related difference in brain activity is evident as early as 11 months of age(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/uow-bbb040416.php)